Dr Balázs Gulyás

Balázs Gulyás is a neuroscientist and is one of the founding professors of Singapore’s newest medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, at the Nanyang Technological University, where he is also the Vice Chair of the university’s Senate. Prior to this appointment he spent most of his scientific career at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, where he is still a Professor.

After obtaining his MD degree at Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary, and pursuing further undergraduate studies in physics and philosophy in Budapest, Cambridge and Leuven (BA and MA), he made his PhD in neuroscience at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, followed by postdoctoral studies at the Karolinska Institutet and at the University of Oxford. Since 1988 he has been working in the fields of basic neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry, neuroimaging.

Balázs has published over a dozen scientific books, authored over thirty-five book chapters and contributed to more than 200 research papers in peer reviewed scientific journals. He is a member of, among others, the Academia Europaea, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Royal Belgian Academy of Medical Sciences, and is an honorary professor of Imperial College London. He is one of the initiators of the World Science Forum.

Dr Beth Vale

Beth Vale is an independent researcher and writer. Her research interests span youth sex and body politics, nocturnal cities, health & illness, and the everyday production of sociality, power and privilege in South African society. She is formerly a researcher in the Humanity Faculty at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), during which time she co-edited a volume on Traditional Leadership in a Democracy and served as lead researcher on the Indlulamithi National Scenarios 2030 project.

Before joining MISTRA, Beth’s postdoctoral research explored the politics of nightclub cultures in Southern Africa, which she reflected on in regular postings for Bubblegumclub, Platform, as well as other print and online publications. Prior to writing on youth cultures, Beth spent many years working in HIV/AIDS research and advocacy. For her PHD, she conducted ethnographic research with HIV-positive adolescents in the Eastern Cape. Her advocacy work has included facilitating workshops with community health workers in South and Eastern Africa, leading Rhodes University’s Student HIV/AIDS Resistance Campaign, co-founding the My Body My Choice photographic exhibition, and training sex educators.

Mr Ross McEwan

Ross McEwan is the Chief Technology Officer of Wala, a zero-fee financial services app for emerging markets, and co-founder and lead developer of Dala, a decentralized financial services ecosystem and cryptocurrency. Ross has nearly 20 years of experience in the technology space predominantly in financial services including retail, lending, asset management, and banking.

Mr Sdumo Dlamini

Sdumo Dlamini was born in a very rural village of NtshingilaHlatsikhulu in Swaziland on the 2nd March 1966.

In 1984, he was one of the ring leaders of the first strike at high school challenging corporal punishment and the system of education and the abuse of the school fund and fees. Only to discover months later that the strike had been spearheaded by the ANC underground operatives when many of his fellow comrades were arrested and detained for almost a year. He was only 17 years. In 1986 to 1988, he did his training as a pupil nurse. The first in the area where only woman were known to be nurses. Failing to find a job, he moved to Durban and got a job at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital in the KwaZulu government where the IFP reigned. He later studied for diplomas in General Nursing and Midwifery. This institution was the backbone and the source of the notorious black on black violence led by the IFP.

The workers fought tough battles against the system and many were killed. He had joined NEHAWU after they had embarked on an illegal strike in September 1990. Actually, he was elected a shopsteward on the 3rd and have led 6 major strikes in that institution.

He led Nehawu at branch or regional level as chairperson and provincial level. In 2000, he was elected COSATU provincial chairperson, served two terms and elected to a third term in July 2006 to be later elected 1st Deputy President at the ninth national congress of COSATU. He also served in the PEC, PWC as a member of the SACP since 2000 and 2003. He is a loyal member of the ANC which he formally joined in 1990 and participates in its community programmes.”

Sdumo has a paralegal background is a strong negotiator with developed conflict management skills, combined with dispute resolution. He is married with three children

Mr Sipho Maseko

Sipho Maseko was appointed as Group Chief Executive Officer and as an Executive Director of Telkom on 1 April 2013. He is also the Chairman of the Board at BCX. Prior, he was the Group Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director at Vodacom, which he joined from BP Southern Africa, where he held various roles from 1997, including COO and CEO. Sipho previously served as Chairman of the Board of SAPREF (Joint Venture between Shell SA and BP SA).

Sipho is currently a Non-Executive Director of the Board of the Centre for Development & Enterprise (CDE). He has also been appointed as a Non-Executive Director at BMW SA in 2018. He has a BA as well as an LLB degree.

Prof Joel Quirk

Joel Quirk is a Professor of Politics at the University of the Witwatersrand. His research focuses on slavery and abolition, migration and human rights, and the history and politics of sub-Saharan Africa. Joel is the author or editor of seven books, including The Anti-Slavery Project: From the Slave Trade to Human Trafficking (2011), Mobility Makes States: Migration and Power in Africa (2015), and Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice (2017). He is a current member of the Yale Working Group on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, and is also a member of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Slave Route Project. Joel recently published an online Roundtable on the Future of Work, in collaboration with openDemocracy and the Ford Foundation, which explored different strategies for workers, migrants, and their allies to shape a better future for work. He has also developed a free Massive Open Online Course (or MOOC), on Forced and Precarious Labour in the Global Economy.

Prof Saurabh Sinha

Saurabh Sinha, SMIEEE, FSAIEE, FSAAE Prof Sinha obtained his B. Eng, M. Eng and Ph.D. degrees in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pretoria (UP). He achieved both his B. Eng and M. Eng with distinction. During his term as Executive Dean, he has significantly contributed to the UJ Global Excellence and Stature Strategic Goal and this contribution is reflected, both quantifiably and qualitatively, in research and innovation, teaching and learning, international profile for global excellence and stature (GES), national and global reputation management, and fitness for GES.
He is also the recipient of the 2007 SAIEE Engineer of the Year Award, 2010 UP Laureate Award and 2013 TW Kambule NRF-NSTF Award for his outstanding contribution to science, engineering, technology and innovation (SETI) through research and its outputs. In 2017, Prof Sinha was a finalist in the 2016/2017 NSTF-South32 Awards – TW Kambule Award (Management Category). Prof Sinha, a registered professional engineer, also served as an industrial consultant for Business Enterprises at the University of Pretoria (Pty) Ltd; in this role – he served a number of industrial sectors, both public and private.
Prof Sinha currently serves on committees of international, national, regional and professional societies. In the recent past, he has served on the Electrical Engineering Professional Advisory Committee, Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA). ECSA is a signatory of the Washington Accord, International Engineering Alliance (IEA).

Analysts and practitioners alike have increasingly come to realise that the technological changes driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution will profoundly affect the world of work, and therefore human societies in general.

At the heart of the matter is the recognition that many jobs traditionally performed by human beings are now being done by machines. Others forms of labour are simply disappearing, and several of the respected professions are no longer thought to be beyond the reach of robots. An Oxford University Report suggests that half of all jobs could be computerised in the near future.

Managing this in the future requires a paradigmatic shift in how we understand education, politics, and the laws regulating the role of human beings in society.

Opinion as to the long-term impact of this on are divided between techno-optimists and techno-pessimists. What is abundantly clear is that societies that quickly grasp and come to terms with these changes will stand a better chance of adapting to them in the longer term.

This session provide a representative of government, business, organised labour and academia the opportunity of sharing their views and experiences of the changing nature of work, and what the technological changes driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution hold for our common future.